THE CYBER Crime Police Station of the Pimpri Chinchwad police have arrested three persons including a BBA student and a passport agent who had withdrawn cash from the funds that were siphoned from the victims of a cyber crime and later used it to purchase Tether (USDT) cryptocurrency to be sent to the international handlers.
The Cyber Crime police station of Pimpri Chinchwad were investigating a share trading scam in which a man who was lured using a YouTube advertisement had lost Rs 56 lakh. The victim was made to believe that he had earned a profit of Rs 5.15 crores after he was manipulated into making several transactions through a fraudulent phone based application.
In the initial phase of the probe the Pimpri Chinchwad police’s Cyber investigators zeroed in on one specific bank account registered in Pune in the name of Balaji Enterprises. A team from the Cyber police station identified the man as Shivam Balkrushna Sanvatsarkar (34), a resident of Erandwane in Pune, who worked as a film producer. He was subsequently placed under arrest.
In the subsequent phase of the probe, investigators found out that some funds from the victim had landed in an account of a public sector bank, in the name of a real estate entity. The money was further withdrawn as cash.
Police zeroed in on the suspects who were operating the account and had withdrawn the cash. Over the last week, the police arrested the three suspects including Sahil Anwar Sayyed (22), a BBA student, Bhupendra Avatar Singh (34), a passport agent and Sarfaraz Rafique Sayyed (29), automobile repair ship owner. Further probe revealed that the bank account which these suspects operated had been flagged in at least seven Cyber crimes and had seen transactions of Rs 12 lakh.
After their arrest, the trio were remanded to police custody. Further investigation is on.